Road gaps and yellow jerseys: 9 times mountain bikers crashed the Tour de France party

As Mathieu van der Poel prepares to line up for his first Tour de France, a brief aside between his World Cup wins and his upcoming Tokyo Olympic mountain bike race, we’re taking a look at other times La Grande Boucle and the world of mountain biking have crossed paths.

Canadian mountain biking in particular has several connections to Le Tour. Dave Watson drew international attention to freeride mountain biking by jumping the peloton, inspiring imitators for decades to come. Ryder Hesjedal took a different tact, switching from mountain bikes to skinny tires to make his way into the race itself.

RELATED: How to watch the 2021 Tour de France in Canada

Read through for 9 times the worlds of road and mountain biking have collided at the Tour de France:

Mathieu van der Poel – A family tradition

We don’t know how this will play out yet, but the near-limitless Dutch rider is using the Tour as a warm up for Tokyo. Can van der Poel find improbable success at both? Or will this aspirational intercontinental double-header finally push the cycling superstar past his limits? It’s happened before. At  the 2019 road world championships he cracked spectacularly. But, starting his first Tour de France 45 years after his grandfather – the iconic Raymond Poulidor – raced his final Tour, van der Poel will have extra motivation to find success in his first Grand Tour appearance.

Dave Watson – Road Gap pioneer

In the early days, freeride was decidedly less polished and more counter culture than some of today’s Instagram friendly stars. Back then, riders definitely weren’t above a good publicity stunt, or a questionably constructed stunt. Especially if that stunt flew in the face of the mainstream cycling.

Canada’s Dave Watson was in Europe to race World Cup downhill, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attract attention to the growing discipline of freeride. And what better way to grab headlines than to leap over the Greatest Show on Earth? Watson did just that, jumping the peloton as racers scaled Col de Galibier during Stage 8 of the 2003 Tour. Watson touched down safely, then bailed hard in the loose rocks on the slope below. It was still impressive enough to make it into New World Disorder IV : Ride the Lightening, and attract attention from mainstream sports media.

Several riders have followed in Watson’s tire tracks, but few with the flair of the Canadian’s fly-by-night operation. In late 2020, Oliver Cuvet went back to rebuild and ride Watson’s Galibier gap. 17 years later, it still looks huge.

Ryder Hesjedal  – dirt racer to Grand Tour winner

Canada’s other major meeting of mountain bikes and Le Tour comes in the form of Ryder Hesjedal. The Victoria, B.C. rider started his storied career racing mountain bikes. Hesjedal won silver at world championships in 1998 as a junior, 2001 as an under-23 and in 2003 as an elite. He went on to race the Olympics in 2004, but was denied a chance at a medal by a flat tire.

RELATED: Throwback Thursday: Ryder Hesjedal’s ’90s Ritchey P21

The Canadian switched to the road after the Beijing Olympics. After racing for several teams, Hesjedal landed his most famous victory at the 2012 Giro d’Italia. With one Grand Tour win to his name, he quickly became Canada’s best hope at the Tour de France. Plagued by crashes, Hesjedal was never able to replicate his Italian success in France. The Canadian was later plagued by, and eventually admitted to, doping during the early days of his road career.

Egan Bernal

2019 Tour de France winner and 2021 Giro d’Italia winner Egan Bernal may race for the big-money Ineos Grenadiers now, but the Colombian started his career far from the paved roads of France. Mountains, though, are a consistent theme. Bernal started racing off-road, even winning silver in the junior men’s XCO at 2014 mountain bike world championships. He was on the podium again with a bronze medal the following year.

Alexis Bosson – Suicide no-hander

In 2018, Alexis Bosson stepped up the Tour gap game. The French rider not only jumped over the peloton, he threw a suicide no-hander to add some style. And, for the road fans, he made sure it was on a proper hard climb, the Hors Categorie-rated Montée du plateau des Glières.

Cadel Evans – World Cup winner wears the yellow jersey

Before Hesjedal or Bernal’s cross-over success, Australia’s golden boy, Cadel Evans paved the way for mountain bikers transitioning to tarmac. Evans’ off-road career was successful, but not short. Before switching to skinny tires, the Australian won two World Cup XCO overall titles. One in 1998 and 1999. He raced the Olympic mountain bike race twice, finishing in the top-10 in 1996 and again in 2000.

Evans’ success continued into his road career, culminating with a 2009 road world championship title and his 2011 Tour de France win.

Peter Sagan – Occasional Olympian

With 12 Tour de France stage wins and seven green points jerseys – including an incredible streak of consecutive points classification wins from 2012 to 2016, Peter Sagan is a huge part of modern Tour history. Sagan started racing mountain bikes alongside road and cyclocross. In 2008, he won the junior men’s XCO world championships in Val di Sole, Italy.

Sagan’s wild success on paved and pavé roads meant he didn’t stay in mountain biking long. He’s never fully left the sport, either. In fact, the Slovakian superstar returned to mountain biking in 2016, opting to race the Olympic men’s XCO in Rio instead of the road race. It didn’t end in a medal, Sagan flatted out after joining the lead group. He still rides off-road in training though and once threatened to quit road racing and return to dirt for good. Sadly, though, the charismatic Slovakian hasn’t followed through on that threat, yet.

Valentin Anouilh  – Turns Stage 10 up to 11

In 2019, 19-year-old Valentin Anouilh injected an extra bit of excitement into an already thrilling Stage 10 of the Tour de France. After weeks of preparation, scouting and building, the young rider sailed cleanly over the lead group as they raced from St.-Flour to Albi. While not as iconic as Watson’s Galibier leap, Anouilh gets points for preparation and for riding it out clean.

Ondrej Cink –

Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock may steal headlines for their fluid transition between road racing and mountain biking (and cyclocross), but they’re not the only top riders this year with mixed backgrounds. After racing the 2012 and 2016 Olympics off-road, Czech rider Ondrej Cink switched to road for the 2017 season. Cink raced the Tour de France that year with his Bahrain-Merida team.

2018 saw Cink return to dirt for good, and to great results. Cink has two World Cup silvers and two fourth place finishes already in 2021. That puts the Kross racing rider on track to better his 14th place finish at his previous two Olympic appearances this year in Tokyo.

Bonus: Szymon Godziek backflips over Tour of Poland on a road bike

Not the Tour de France, and not not even on a mountain bike. But slopestyle sensation Szymon Godziek backflipping over the Tour of Poland peloton in 2017 is still impressive!